


In the Shadows

by idrilswritings (idrilhadhafang)



Series: Shadow Girl [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Horror, Monsters, Original Fiction, POV Child, POV Female Character, Star Wars References, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 18:51:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19179322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilswritings
Summary: Monsters are not always what we expect.





	In the Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: phobias

There was something about the dark that still scared Emma Jackson. She hated the dark, hated the way that it seemed to hide terrible things in the shadows. She’d lie awake and wonder, absently, when the monster was going to emerge from under the bed or out of the closet, as she couldn’t help but wonder and worry.   
  
It was under the bed that Emma swore she heard breathing. Soft breathing, but enough to scare her — Mama and Daddy said there was no one there, but grownups could be wrong, couldn’t they?  
  
“Don’t hurt me!” she said.   
  
What she didn’t expect was the voice of another child. “Why would I do that?”  
  
“Why don’t you come out from under the bed?” Emma said. “Stop hiding there like a scaredy-cat.”  
  
Silence. Then the figure emerged, turned on the light, revealing a black-haired girl around Emma’s age. She looked like a ghost. A drowned ghost.   
  
It was funny, Emma thought, that the girl didn’t look too scary when viewed in the light. Instead, she looked almost fragile, pale — she wondered absently what kind of pain that her boogeyman — boogeygirl? — had to go through in order to be like this.   
  
“What are you doing under my bed?” she said.   
  
“Well,” said the boogeygirl, “It was the closest thing I had to escaping.”  
  
“Are you in trouble?”  
  
The boogeygirl smiled without humor. “You could say that.”  
  
“Are you scary?”  
  
The boogeygirl shrugged. “I wish I was. At least to my enemies. But I won’t hurt you, human. You’re safe here. Besides, I doubt the dark is that scary.”  
  
“It is scary,” Emma argued. “It always is.”  
  
“Nothing really hurts you in the night,” said the boogeygirl. “Humans don’t understand the night. They fear what lurks in strange corners, not the more realistic ideas.” A beat. “So I’ve been told.”  
  
“What’s your name?”  
  
The boogeygirl smiled. “Katrina. You can call me Kat. Don’t worry, human; I won’t hurt you. I don’t hurt anyone who doesn’t hurt me first.”  
  
“O-kay...” Emma wished she knew how to react. She was only seven, after all.   
  
Kat looked around Emma’s room, and Emma knew that she was quietly judging just about everything, including Emma’s Star Wars posters. “What is that strange beam-sword?” Kat said. “I’ve never seen it before.”  
  
“It’s a lightsaber!” Now Emma couldn’t help but be excited talking to this strange girl. “You swing it around and it goes — ” She tried to imitate the sounds of a lightsaber the best she could. She couldn’t say she was good at it, but she got points for trying, at least.   
  
“Oh.” Kat said. Her eyes strayed to a poster of Rey fighting Kylo Ren. “She seems like a little lioness, this one. Very strong. I can imagine her taking on a whole city.”  
  
Emma grinned. “She’s so cool!” she said. “I wanna be her when I grow up, but...” She trailed off.   
  
“But what?” Kat said.   
  
Emma shrugged. “I’m not very smart or brave.”  
  
Kat stepped forward. “With time and training, you will be."  
  
“Really?”  
  
“Really really.”  
  
“Kat,” Emma said, "Could you...tell me about where you came from?”  
  
“Well,” Kat said, “Where I live is a world that may seem strange to you...”


End file.
